What’s in a name?: Macedonia’s problems go much deeper

Deadlines continue to come and go with wearisome rapidity in the ongoing political crisis between the two majority ethnic political parties of Macedonia, writes Richard Howitt.

Richard Howitt is a British Labour party MEP for the East of England.

Serous allegations of illegal mass surveillance, electoral fraud, corruption and deep media bias are well-known to those of us who observe the country, even if each of the major parties points the finger of blame at the other.

But outsiders seem to have little interest, considering conflict to be more of a threat in neighbouring Kosovo or Bosnia-Herzegovina and over-simplifying the country’s troubles as caused only by the long-running name dispute with Greece.

Democracy did reach a crisis point last year when the Government accused the opposition of planning a ‘coup’, while the opposition itself said it was forced to boycott parliament and selectively publish the surveillance tapes leaked to it, known as ‘bombs’ because of what they claimed was evidence of criminality in the government and the shut-down of democratic space in the country.

That’s where the cross-party mediators from the European Parliament came in, helping to negotiate what became known as the ‘Przino Agreement’. This brought both parties in to parliament and in to government, agreed the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate wrong-doing on all sides and heralded the resignation of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, in order to pave the way for early elections – but through which he very much intended to return.

That agreement was on the verge of breaking down this week, with essential electoral and media reforms unfinished in time for the planned April election date, according to published statements from both the European Union and the United States.

This time even outsiders would acknowledge the enormity of the consequences. The EU and the US publicly warned that they would not recognise the election results, leaving the country with an internationally illegitimate government and forcing the withdrawal of the positive recommendation from the European Commission for EU accession talks even to begin.

History suggested that last minute brinkmanship on all sides would not prevent us being able to negotiate an agreement sufficient at least to temporarily overcome the latest crisis.

But this time it was different.

All attempts at shuttle diplomacy failed to bridge the gap between the parties.

Only under pressure from its minority ethnic Albanian junior coalition partner, DUI, did the governing VMRO party unilaterally agree to delay the elections. But crucially, there was an absence of any agreement with the opposition SDSM and its leader Zoran Zaev to find consensus on completing reforms to enable the new elections to be considered credible – by either party or the outside world.

It is not yet clear if this constitutes a breakdown of the Przino Agreement; in our statement we said that we hoped it did not and both Parliament and diplomatic statements express the hope that the conditions for credible elections could yet be created.

Mr Gruevski himself said it was more likely than not the opposition would return to extra-parliamentary politics, and rejected the call to return to all-party talks at this stage.

In truth, as they were not invited to be part of Tuesday’s (23 February) agreement, there is no formal obligation for the opposition SDSM to respect it. In Parliament, they sat on their hands and refused to vote for the new election date on 5 June, although they had offered to do so as part of a deal on urgent reforms.

Meanwhile, VMRO publicly claimed that their agreement to delay the elections is based on specific assurances given by the EU and US that they will not further assess electoral credibility in advance of the new election date, and that both further media reforms and inter-party talks can now be delayed until after the elections.

But the succinct statement agreed between the EU and US paints a different story: “We take good note of the decision to postpone the elections until 5 June. If everyone works hard and plays by the rules, we see no reason why these cannot be credible elections.”

This still leaves open the international assessment of the credibility of the elections, making that contingent on actions by the parties. Meanwhile, a question agreed in advance for the press conference, led US Ambassador Baily, got the reply that “media reform remains part of the electoral process”.

The claimed ‘specific assurances’ had not been given and certainly the MEPs were not, and would not, have been party to doing so.

The cross-party European Parliament mediators were clear in stating they regretted the missed opportunity to find a consensus between all parties, but they have helped to identify the critical issues that can provide the basis for achieving a final agreement to enable the new elections to be credible.

That united emphasis on the word ‘credibility’ by the international community on both sides of the Atlantic and on all sides of the European Parliament, sends a clear and strong message.

Not just the electoral process but the entire politics of the country are being fundamentally questioned.

In all of this, the people who are suffering most are the population of this small, land-locked but beautiful country, too many of whom live in poverty. At risk too is a return to inter-ethnic strife, which could threaten FYR Macedonia’s very stability.

Each demands democratic progress as a prerequisite, to maintain the country’s European perspective. The new election date meant painstaking diplomacy did at least succeed in averting one catastrophe this week, but only at the expense of potentially generating another, one day very soon.

Sadly, we failed to reverse the spiralling political conflict, which has afflicted the country for too long.

For us in the European Union, there is no alternative to maintaining patient diplomacy with the country and its political parties, in the hope of securing progress. To be successful, we need our friends in Skopje to realise that – for them – there is no alternative to Europe itself.

Advertisement

Comments

5 responses to “What’s in a name?: Macedonia’s problems go much deeper”

There was absolutely no reason to throw in the ‘FYR’ reference near the end of the article when ‘Macedonia’ is the name of the country, which is: a) documented in history; b) determined by the people of that nation; and c) acknowledged by two-thirds of the world’s countries. The best that commentators can do is reference the UN name resolution as evidence to support their usage of ‘FYR’ — yet, they leave out the fact that the “interim name agreement” was akin to a person holding a gun to a defenseless person’s head and forcing him to sign. If this is the kind of reasoning you insist on using to justify what amounts to disrespecting and belittling a people, then you are no more decent than the chauvinists in Greece who spit on Macedonians — within Greece and in Macedonia — while denying them self-determination. To be clear, Greece’s dispute with Macedonia stems from Greece’s insecurities and the Greek nationalist agenda to create: a) a purely ethnically and homogeneous Greek society; and b) a continuous link (in culture, genetics and language) between modern Greece and ancient Hellas. Thus, by defaulting to using ‘FYR’, you are giving fuel to Greece in order to continue with their chauvinistic policies rooted in fascism and intolerance.

Yes, Macedonia has more problems than its southern neighbor’s anti-self-determination stances. However, international media contributes to Macedonians’ problems when they insist on insulting Macedonians worldwide by referring to their homeland as ‘FYR Macedonia.’ Macedonians have enough economic and social problems to deal with — they don’t need the international community continuing to buy into Greece’s propaganda by indirectly questioning the Macedonians’ identity. Further, the continual insistence of outsiders denying to the Macedonians their name and their identity allows Macedonian politicians to capitalize on peoples’ emotions and to steer the discussion away from creating a Macedonian society that economically and socially benefits the Macedonian people. This makes you a part of the problem, not the solution.

It’s time to start showing respect to Macedonia and the Macedonians. If you stand for fairness, equality, respect and democratic principles, you should treat the Macedonians according to these notions. Might should not make right, but it seems that the opposite belief is the signal certain commentators, politicians and diplomats give when aligning with bullying tactics over the principles of fairness and equality.

We are Macedonians and our ancestral land is Macedonia. We will continue to protect our name and identity, for within it resides our culture, our history, our families, and our spirit.

What a load of crock. Ultra nationalist former Yugoslavians have ridiculously and dangerously tried to rebrand themselves into founders of the Hellenistic period and manipualt the name Macedonia to promote irredentism towards Greece (as Greeks warned would happen 20 years ago and were unfairly ridiculed).

It is fanatics like you that deny the identity of actual Macedonians… located squarely in Macedonia Greece not Skopje (aka ancient Paeonia). You speak about “propaganda” but then wholesale engage in it. It is a historical fact most of Skopian’s ancestors used to self-identify as ethnic Bulgarians prior to Tito. Gruev, Miskov, Delchev, IMRO.., all ethnic Bulgarians. Shameless racist liar.

If the former Yugoslavians believed the right to self-determination and state recognition was an absolute… they would have recognized the self-determination of state of Palestine and would not have quietly remove recognition of Republic of China when it suited them Just one more disingenuous lie.

Sorry to break it to you champ but your slavic ancestors didn’t identify as “Macedonians” as you claim. It is not the fault of Greeks you shamelessly lie about your own history. Ancient Macedonian artifacts, all written in Greek, all attesting to their self-determination as Greeks, aren’t going anywhere for the sake of your lies not will they disappear to hide the shame of your apologists. You can call yourselves ethnic Athenians next if you wish. It will be no more true. Here is the truth but unfortunately extremists like you hide the truth from even yourselves.

“The history of the construction of a Macedonian national identity does not begin with Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C. or with Saints Cyril and Methodius in the ninth century A.D. as Macedonian nationalist historians often claim”

“Krste Misirkov, who had clearly developed a strong sense of his own personal national identity as a Macedonian and who outspokenly and unambiguously called for Macedonian linguistic and national separatism, acknowledged that a Macedonian national identity was a relatively recent historical development.”

“The political and military leaders of the Slavs of Macedonia at the turn of the century seem not to have heard Misirkov’s call for a separate Macedonian national identity; they continued to identify themselves in a national sense as Bulgarians rather than Macedonians.” – US Anthropologist Loring Danforth, “The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World”, Princeton Univ Press, December 1995

It is ranting bigoted Greek hating ultra nationalists like Loma Maks, that shows Greece has very real security concerns when it comes to Skopje. Not all Skopians are extremists but clearly many are having an identity crisis by now bizarrely claiming to be founders of the Hellenistic period… that hate anything Hellenic.

More troubling to Greece are those that brazenly promote “United Macedonia” under authoritarian thug Gruevski who feeds them a steady diet of fake history. He hides their ethnic Bulgarian past and instead tries to portray them as related to ancient Macedonians… while many of their apologists unethically evade over their recent identity quick change to hide their mistake of recognizing them.

Blame Greece for its fiances. Greece is not to blame for Skopian fascists promoting irredentism. Nor it is to blame for the Skopians like Loma that lies through its teeth about former region of Vardar’s history.